Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has vowed to prioritise the search for other countries to take asylum seekers and refugees in limbo on Nauru and Manus Island.
Mr Shorten took a swipe at the government's lack of success saying it had been negligent in negotiating regional resettlement.
"We've got a situation of almost indefinite detention," he told reporters in Geelong on Monday.
"That's clearly unacceptable to people and it's unfair on the people in the middle of it all."
Mr Shorten's pledge comes amid reports of rising tensions at Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea with asylum seekers rallying in the rain on Sunday night chanting "freedom" and "this place is illegal".
PNG authorities are allowing them to leave the centre during the day, in order to comply with a Supreme Court decision that ruled their detention was illegal.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said discussions with the PNG government on the centre's fate could take several months, but he ruled out asylum seekers being resettled in Australia.
"There is no protest, no action that will sway the Turnbull government's mind," he told reporters in Brisbane.
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